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Leo Lin, age 10, plays chess during a Saskatoon Chess Club meet up at lower Place Riel on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon, SK on Sunday, November 24, 2019. Lin is is the highest-rated player in the club.Liam Richards/ Saskatoon StarPhoenix

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Jason Danner remembers how chess in Saskatoon used to be. In the 2000s, he and a handful of other players would spend afternoons at the Mystic Java on Fourth Avenue, swapping coaching time with the cafe’s owner for coffee and sandwiches.

That devoted contingent met regularly and used an email blast to schedule time to play — now, they connect largely through Facebook.

It’s not the only way times have changed. Chess has gained broad popularity in Saskatoon, to the extent that the city’s two clubs are looking to form a competitive league.

Leo Lin, age 10, plays chess during a Saskatoon Chess Club meet up at lower Place Riel on the University of Saskatchewan campus. Lin is is the highest-rated player in the club.Liam Richards/Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Danner moved to Saskatoon in 2007 but has been playing chess for 35 years. He has connections with both of the city’s established chess clubs, Bridge City Chess Club and Saskatoon Chess Club, which host weekly meetups and events.

Membership in the two clubs has grown from 5-10 people in the early 2000s to over 150, Danner said.

“We’re trying to do whatever we can to make it available to anyone,” he explained. “We want to invite beginners and players of all levels. Our ultimate goal is to be able to invite some strong players here.”

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Having strong players compete is part of building the foundation for a league, Danner said.

There are two organizing bodies, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and the Canadian Federation of Chess (CFC), that organizers would want the league to fall under as they’re in charge of giving ratings to players.

A high enough rating and achieving norms in competitive events can eventually lead to a player being bestowed with titles like grandmaster.

Saskatoon doesn’t currently have any grandmasters and players that are approaching that title don’t play locally because they don’t want to risk rating points.

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Once a league is established, it would be able to self-perpetuate, Danner said.

“We’re trying to grow the scene, we’re trying to get good, we’re trying to increase our rating so that we can get titles and have tournaments in the bigger cities,” he said.

As it stands, without rated tournaments or league games, Saskatoon is a bubble — players wanting to compete have to travel out of town in order to increase their ratings.

Danner and 11 other players recently competed at the Banff Open in order to do so.

A part of the game’s increasing popularity is its broad appeal, Danner said. It’s something young people have been picking up as well. Saskatoon Chess Club’s highest-rated player, Leo Lin, is a junior and only ten years old.

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“We’re doing outreach to high schools and elementary schools,” Danner said. “There’s a lot of kids that want to get involved.”

While there can be a bit of a learning curve for new players, once someone gets into the swing of things, it’s easy to get hooked.

“It’s not easy to learn unless you have the desire and patience to get over that hurdle,” he said. “But it is easy to learn because the rules are simple but the game is hard. And that challenge is what drives us to do it. A lot of us are chess addicts.”

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